February 4 – Happy Birthday, Johann Ludwig Bach

I'm
sure you know that Johann Bach was a German composer living in the
late 1600s and early 1700s.

But
did you know that there were TWO Johann Bachs, both German composers
living in the late 1600s and early 1700s?

One
is our birthday boy, born on this date in 1677. The other one is
Johann Sebastian Bach, born at the end of March in 1685. They were
second cousins. Do you know which one is “the” Bach? The famous
one?

It
is Johann Sebastian Bach that people know and love today. His second
cousin, Johann LUDWIG Bach, did fairly well during his lifetime but
is now just a footnote in musical history.

The
importance of middle names

Having
a middle name helps us to know who we are talking or hearing, reading
or

writing about. It helps us keep straight presidents (George
Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush), famous people (like
paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and author Steven Gould) and family
members (I had a friend whose name was Maria Fernandez, and all of
her sisters were also named Maria Fernandez, but they all had
different middle names, and that's what everyone called them).

My
mom doesn't have a middle name, and George Washington didn't have one, either! But most people have one or two
middle names.

I
was wondering how many people have my first and last name, in the
whole U.S., and it turns out that I am unique! When I checked the
website How Many of Me?I discovered that there is only one
Cathleen Earle in the nation: me.

Does it seem like I don't need
a middle name, since I'm the only one? Well...that website only checks the U.S., not the world,
AND there may have been other Cathleen Earles in the past, or there
may be in the future. It's good that I have a middle name, just in
case I get famous!

By
the way, I wanted to check for a more common name than mine, and so I
checked the name John Smith. Guess what? There are 46,233 John Smiths
in the U.S. right now!!! Wow!

I
guess those John Smiths really, really need middle names to help keep
them all straight!

How
common is your name? Do you have a middle name to help make it a lot less common?

About Me

This site is designed to be a source of interesting articles for kids and a resource for teachers and parents (especially homeschool teacher/parents!). From world holidays to historical anniversaries, Every Day Is Special celebrates each and every day.